A male kowari (Dasyuroides byrnei) originating from a zoo facility was delivered for
post mortem evaluation in Hungary. Acute lobar pneumonia with histopathologic changes
resembling an adenovirus (AdV) infection was detected by light microscopic examination.
The presence of an AdV was confirmed by obtaining partial sequence data from the adenoviral
DNA-dependent DNA-polymerase. Although the exact taxonomic position of this novel
marsupial origin virus could not be determined, pairwise identity analyses and phylogenetic
calculations revealed that it is distantly related to other members in the family
Adenoviridae.
